


Imagineers At Play

by Sassassin



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Day 2: Together/Alone, Disney Imagineering AU, M/M, Sheith Week 2016
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 18:42:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7856776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sassassin/pseuds/Sassassin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shiro’s excellent work with Allura and Coran on the new lighting effects for Disneyland’s Indiana Jones ride earns him a one-year job in Tokyo to help out with Disney’s most advanced ride yet—the new Beauty and the Beast trackless dark ride.  Keith and their border collie, Comet, are happy for Shiro but miss him greatly.  Meanwhile, Keith, Lance, and Coran grapple with the Haunted Mansion’s newest yet oldest resident, and Pidge starts an engineering co-op internship on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride with guidance from Matt and Hunk.  A Disney Imagineering AU!  (The title is a reference to construction signs in Disneyland.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Imagineers At Play

**Author's Note:**

> I love engineering, and I love Disney! When I was working on a big project, I started listening to Disney ride soundtracks and watching ride videos on Youtube because they remind me of vacations with my family. I love ride videos from Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye because I rode it when it first came out in the 90s and even sat in the driver’s seat on my first time through! [This](https://youtu.be/COc50rgFkOw?t=7m48s) is what the original version of the ride looked like.
> 
> From watching videos, I found out that the beginning of Indiana Jones was significantly updated with [new lighting effects](https://youtu.be/niVo6ARHx_o?t=59s) in 2013, which gives the ride a more magical and fantastical feel rather than a dark and mysterious one. Flashy lighting and projection effects also seem to be the new “it” technology in Disney’s most recent attractions. [Mystic Manor](https://youtu.be/BeDx6V8dmXg?t=1m24s) in Hong Kong Disney uses light like magical dust to guide riders, and, unlike the original Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion (my favorite ride!), it also runs on a new trackless system.
> 
> I just read today that Tokyo Disneyland will be getting a [new trackless Beauty and the Beast dark ride](https://ohmy.disney.com/insider/2016/04/27/beauty-and-the-beast-themed-land-big-hero-6-attraction-announced-for-tokyo-disneyland/) similar to Mystic Manor! These connections between new special effects and the new trackless dark rides was how I came up with the plot for this fic. Enjoy!

Shiro yawned and leaned back in his desk chair, nursing a mug of hot black coffee. He pressed the power button on his dual monitor Mac desktop to shut it down and reached down by the left side of his chair to give Comet a loving rub on her head.

“All done! Ready to go home?”

“RUFF!” Her tongue lolled out happily, and she gave his hand a big wet lick.

“Awww, you’re such a good girl!” Allura walked over from her desk on the other side of the room and bent down to ruffle Comet’s floppy gray and black ears and stroke her back. It was getting late, and Allura and Shiro were the last to leave, as usual. Comet barked happily and flopped over onto her side for an additional belly rub. Allura ran her hands through her gray and black brindle coat and over a light orange brown leg with a little white sock. Shiro loved her left front paw so much; they were white hair buddies! As Shiro waited for his computer to shut down, he ran a hand through the white forelock in his otherwise black hair and remembered how tiny she had been when Keith and he found her all curled up in the back of the animal shelter, a multicolored ball of whimpering fluff. But when Keith approached her with soft words and an outstretched hand, she had let him pet her and pick her up in his arms. Thankfully, a couple weeks of love and care at their cozy downtown Anaheim apartment was all she needed to feel comfortable with people and start bouncing around and breaking things. Well, Shiro wasn’t fond of the breaking things part—RIP, Keith’s favorite Tigger mug—but it had been a relief to see Comet so happy.

After one last pat, Allura rose and went to the large table in the center (the usual place for cookies, doughnuts, and other shared treats) to pick up her mouse cage. “What kind of dog is she again?”

“A border collie.”

“She’s so cute!” Allura looked down at the cage. “Say bye to Shiro!” They squeaked and snuffled their little pink noses at him through the bars. The plump chestnut brown one with a white spot around one eye peeked out of its burrow in the aspen wood shavings. 

“Bring Your Pets to Work Day was a great idea,” Shiro said. “You guys should do it again.”

“Oh Shiro, don't be so sad! You’ll only be gone for a year! We’ll do this again when you come back, ok?”

The mice squeaked in agreement. Comet approached them and sniffed through the cage. The littlest mouse touched its nose to her.

“Hold on, let me take a picture.” Shiro chuckled and took out his phone. “I’ll print it out and take it with me to Tokyo.”

Allura held the cage still from the bottom as Shiro took the picture.

“I’m sure they’ll love you over there! You did such a great job with the Observatory of the Future. The stars look a thousand times more beautiful now.”

“Haha, more like five thousand times! Those LED lights were worth it, though. Purple’s my favorite color.” He nodded at her when he was done and put his phone in his black messenger bag. Allura held onto the cage with one arm and then grabbed the handle so she could carry it better to her car. Shiro drank the last of his coffee. “Keith said he likes your Mara aging effect second best.”

Allura laughed. “Tell him thanks for me, ok?”

“Will do!” 

She opened the door with her card key and waved at him. “Good luck on the new Beauty and the Beast ride! I’m sure it’ll be fantastic!”

Shiro waved back, and she gave a last smile and closed the door behind her. 

He walked over to the kitchen area with Comet following behind him and began rinsing out his mug. Shiro was going to miss everyone. All the coffee-fueled nights that they and the rest of their team had spent together adding new effects to the beginning of the Indiana Jones ride had bonded them together tightly like a pride of lions. Even Pidge, Matt’s little sibling and a college co-op intern, was considered a member of their family. Shiro regretted that he was going to miss the second and last phase of their internship. Hopefully Keith could link them all together over Skype or something. Pidge would be so excited to see the Imagineering offices in Tokyo! Yeah, they should all have a Skype meeting soon after he gets settled. Although everyone besides Allura and he were working on different rides now—Keith, Lance, and Allura’s husband Coran on the Haunted Mansion with the new Hat Box Ghost, and Hunk, Matt, and likely Pidge on Pirates of the Caribbean next door—they could all probably gather in their old office in Adventureland over lunch. Well, more likely for doughnuts because he’d be on a fourteen-hour time difference. Fourteen hours! Hopefully Hunk and Lance could make it for 8AM doughnuts so Shiro could introduce them all to his new engineering team before Tokyo Disneyland closed.

He set the mug down in the drainer and patted Comet’s head with his right hand, an advanced prosthetic that Keith and the others had given him this year for his thirty-fourth birthday. It was somehow waterproof, thanks to Lance, and Shiro found life a lot easier now that he could wash dishes and do more tasks in general with greater ease. 

He picked up his messenger bag. Was everything he needed out of his desk? Tablet, stylus, keyboard, phone and tablet power cords… ID card was in his pocket where it belonged, pictures… The pictures! He put the picture frame with multiple photos of Keith and the team carefully into his bag. Shiro gave a final look around his desk and the office for things that might have accidentally been left on and walked over with Comet to the door. 

“Ready to go?”

Comet jumped up and waited in the open area between the door and him. 

“You want my card key?”

“Ruff!”

Shiro took his card lanyard out of his pocket and detached the plastic holder from it. “One… Two… Three!”

He tossed his card at her, and she caught it neatly in her mouth and leapt with it at the card reader. It beeped green, and she jumped again at the door handle and put her front paws and her full weight on it, causing the door to open outward.

“Good girl!”

She wagged her tail and kept the door open like a good doggy doorstop. 

Shiro attached her leash, flicked off all the lights, and guided her away from the door. It swung behind them with a click. He took a deep breath, held it in for a few seconds, and exhaled slowly. 

Comet whined and nudged his leg with her nose. He rubbed her behind the ears, in her favorite spot. 

“All right girl, let’s go meet Keith behind the mansion!”

She gave him a big doggy smile and pulled on the leash towards New Orleans Square.

**Author's Note:**

> [This](https://youtu.be/0l5lSAGgyFQ?t=37s) is the set of effects that Shiro was in charge of (Observatory of the Future)
> 
> And [this](https://youtu.be/xlfdTUsP6hU?t=1m51s) is what Allura worked on! (Fountain of Eternal Youth)
> 
> Coran was especially proud of his glitter and bank vault effects (Chamber of Earthly Riches, see notes at the beginning)
> 
> Follow me on [tumblr](http://sabretoothed-moose-lion.tumblr.com/) if you want!
> 
> I'm pansexual and love writing fics featuring LGBTQIA / GSM characters, especially scientists and engineers. There still aren't many of us who are out in the workplace, but that will change over time as more of us venture forth and mentor new researchers. <3


End file.
